Friday, November 29, 2013

'Rent to rent', remember that one, it was the one before 'rent to buy'

Well, we were never very keen on this 'rent to rent' scam that some - landlords ( can we call them that or are they tenants of landlords who sub-let? ), anyway here's the latest story from the 'sector'.

It turns out that one of the 'rent to rent gurus', a Daniel Burton has gone bust. The young (know it all - clever clogs ) who'd put himself up as the sector's poster boy, giving out the typical cheesy "you can make a fortune just like me" webinars and courses, where wannabe investors could learn all his tricks for a few hundred pounds. You know the scene, a few biscuits, punch the air whilst shouting "we can do it!" and not spilling your tea, some powerpoint graphs and folder with a ten point plan. Well, he has closed his London company having gone bust.

According to Channel 4 the 'rent to rent' tycoon, who once boasted of £35,000 a month profit has gone back to Scunthorpe with his tail between his legs owing a load of money.

He has promised to pay back the £60,000 he admits to still owing. He described how he had been forced to sell his car.

Now the question is, having once been making £35,000 a month in profit, how can things go so quickly wrong? It wouldn't be that this property guru's claims were exaggerated, unrealistic - or even untruthful?

I mean, surely a property guru promising to show you how to make a fortune if you attend their £400 a day property seminar wouldn't have lied - would they?

Thursday, November 28, 2013

A tenant faces eviction from her property because of her extensive hoard of stuff/junk has been assessed to be a fire hazard by her landlord.The landlord has repeatedly warned the tenant, Vivienne Davis, 64 to reduce her hoard but so far she has ignored the requests.

I remember having a similar tenant a few years back. He'd managed to create a one foot channel that circulated his flat like a train track, cutting between mountains of possessions. To my relief he moved out not long after I bought the place. He wanted a bigger flat so he could buy more stuff.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Liverpool City Council is pushing ahead with the proposal to introduce a landlord license scheme to cover all it's private residential landlords. If the proposal gets the go ahead it would make Liverpool the first English city to introduce a blanket scheme of all its landlords.

First, a 12-week consultation will evaluate the scheme. The consultation process is set to include landlords and landlord associations; residents and residents associations; private tenants; advice agencies; Registered Housing Providers; and ward members.

Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Ann O’Byrne, said: “We want to make sure Liverpool has a good quality private rented sector, which tenants can be confident in, and we believe this licensing scheme can play a major part in helping us achieve that."

If the scheme gets approval, it is expected to begin end of 2014 into 2015, and will cover around 50,000 rented properties across Liverpool.

A landlord of a rental property in Muswell Hill has been fined a total of £12,520 for not meeting fire safety laws. in a Muswell Hill house he was renting out. The semi-detached rental property on Duke’s Avenue was confirmed to have broken four offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Landlord, Wayne Chodosh was sentenced at Tottenham Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday (20 November). - read more about the Muswell Hill landlord fined.

A landlord has been fined £22,000 for renting out bedsits in Barnet, London that were described as 'death traps' at the case at Willesdon Magistrates Court. Defective electrical wiring, non-working toilets, a defective toilet and a leaking ceiling were part of a long list of issues with the rental properties owned by landlord, Shamal Najim - read more about the Barnet landlord fined.

Sunderland landlord Brij Bushan Chowdhry, has been fined £1,000 with £900 costs and £100 victim surcharge, after not complying to a Housing Act Improvement Notice on a rental property in Kismet Street, Southwick - read more on the Sunderland landlord fined.

The Bank of England have dismissed the rumour they are planning on raising interest rates sooner than expected.

BoE Governor Mark Carney told the Treasury Select Committee that even though growth in the economy was stronger than expected, - ‘The Bank is not going to do is pull the rug out from under the recovery just as it gets going.’

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

But what about all those incidental little spaces. The forgotten bits - the landing cupboards, empty sheds, basements, spare unused rooms. Every forgotten space surely has a value. Landlords need to start thinking pounds per cubic metre.

With space in this country at such a premium, there is plenty of demand out there, from those desperate for a bit more, so it might be worth landlords checking around to see if they've got any unused 'nooks and crannies' they could get filled.

There are various sites out there that allow users to advertise space to rent, some of these sites such as www.storenextdoor.com even offer free insurance as part of their package. I saw some attic cupboards on the site being advertised at £13 per a week to rent, that's more than £500 a year - for a cupboard!

It's that time of year when many landlords thoughts will invariably turn to the thorny issue of taxation of their rental profits. Ouch! One stocking filler for any landlord could be a book from our taxation bookshop on how to save on property tax. It might not be light reading but it might be worth looking into the details of property taxation.

If you don't think you are going to be that 'lucky' over Christmas this year then don't forget that there is loads of free advice on landlord tax in the Landlords Bible and within the many magazine articles on the website. Enjoy and save!

Sunday, November 24, 2013

That doesn't mean that you necessarily end up with a bargain. However, you can. It is a case of being in the right place at the right time. What you need to remember is that unlike a private treaty sale, if there is no reserve price you might find that you just happen to be in the auction room with know real competition and where nobody wants to pay anywhere the real market price for the property. It cuts the other way too. I've been at auctions where there have been several bidders determined to buy the property at any price.

EIS which provides the data for all property auctions shows that October was a record month for auction sales. The overall lots climbed 20% with lots sold increasing 30% to a record for October of 3,064. This surpasses the previous high in October 2006.

Over the long-term their figures reveal that in the last 12 months over 1700 lots were sold up 7% on the previous year with revenues up almost 12%.

For more information on buying investment property at a property auction follow the link.

I'm not sure whether the latest announcement by Labour of the building of new towns is ever going to happen. It sounds to me like a load of 'Balls' - bullish posturing.

Labour's promise of building 200,000 homes a year will surely be impossible to achieve. They talk of new towns, expanding garden suburbs, and allowing local authorities to expand towns without objection from neighbouring authorities. Have they met NIMBY Britain? It would be political suicide.

What they seem to forget with their political arrogance, is the majority of voters don't want building in their back yards, or this green and pleasant land covered in concrete and brick.

The reality is aggressive development would be a vote loser and not a vote a winner.

Nobody can argue, that Britain needs a heavy dose of new housing, but how a Government achieves that has thus far, proven to be politically impossible.

The Scottish government have put a final nail in Right to Buy scheme in Scotland, with the announcement that those council tenants that were previously eligible to purchase their property have three years to do so, or lose that opportunity forever.

The scheme has been ended to help retain

The Deputy first leader, Nicola Sturgeon justified the end of the scheme by saying,

“The Scottish Government is doing everything possible to maximise our
investment in housing and deliver on our target of 30,000 new,
affordable homes over the lifetime of this Parliament. But, given the
pressure on both the housing stock and budgets - and with 400,000 people
on waiting lists for social housing - we can no longer afford to see
badly needed homes lost to the social sector."

“That is why I am
today announcing the final stage of the abolition of the Right to Buy – a
decision that will safeguard Scotland’s social housing stock for the
benefit of citizens today and for our future generations."

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Landlords looking at a nice new modern block investment could do worse than look at this block in Warrington. The block is fully let and at the passing rent the gross yield of just over 9%.

DescriptionThe property comprises a modern 2-storey brick built block of 12 two bedroom apartments. The property is in good condition, finished to a good standard throughout; kitchens and bathrooms have modern specifications and the communal areas present well. Externally, there are 19 allocated and visitor parking spaces situated to the rear of the property.

PriceOffers in excess of £750,000

IncomeThe property is currently fully let, providing an income of £68,700 per annum.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Filling out a N5B form for possession of your buy-to-let is not straightforward but also it's completely 'doable' for a landlord with a little bit of spare time. As with all legal forms it's a matter of not slipping up and getting one of the answers wrong. This could jeopardise your claim and result in the judge throwing it out with all the associated legal delays. I've written previously about more experience of filling out a N5B form for possession.

Monday, November 18, 2013

The latest improving unemployment figures have suggested that interest rates may be on the rise sooner than many expected. The head of the Bank of England Mark Carney's policy of holding interest rates at there historic low until unemployment drops below 7% has poured speculation on earlier rate rises. Many in the press now expect the first rise to come as soon as 2015 rather than 2016. The good news for landlords such as myself on interest related mortgages is that we still have several years of ridiculously low rates and corresponding record rental profits. Predictions on interest rates in the Mail using swap rates at the beginning of November were:

• 0.590% - one year
• 0.845% - two years
• 1.755% - five years

Have a look at what the pundits are saying about interest rate rises in:

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Many of you will already have had a look at the details of Castle Trust's new equity release scheme which allows landlords to increase the LTV on their buy to let property and not necessarily pay interest on the further advance.

Taxation on new equity release scheme

One landlord has rightly raised the question of taxation on this product. We know that interests on loans and mortgages are off setable against rental profits on a landlords business. However, this particular product you do not necessarily pay interest. I was advised by an accountant friend that guidance on how the HMRC would view this product is available in their guidance on 'Alternative Finance Arrangements' (AFA)

Can you offset interest charges?

This means that interest charges are treated as
revenue deductions, as long as they relate to a qualifying purpose (such as
property finance/refinance). Even if most of the "interest payment" is not
paid until the property is sold it cannot be deducted from a capital
gain.

In his view there is an interesting twist for
landlords using AFAs, in that they should be able to claim a revenue
deduction for interest payable as long as they can
reasonably calculate their annual interest costs on an accruals basis. This
would probably involve forecasting the lender's return on an
eventual sale/repayment date. This is because interest payable on normal qualifying loans for the purpose
of a trade/property business is relieved in the accounting period
it relates to not when it is actually paid to the lender.

According to HSBC nine million UK have less than £250 in savings. That's less than a weeks worth of money to act as a safety net if for whatever reason their 'life goes pear'.

The HSBC research indicates the figure has increased rapidly over the past year by nearly 800,000 as more and more families wrestle with the disconnect of wage inflation and the increasing cost of living.

With more families facing financial struggle it leaves landlords with the increasing risk of rent arrears.

Property auctions have experienced a bumper October. EIG groups most recent report showed overall lots offered climbed 20% to 3,972 lots, whilst lots sold were up by 30% to 3,064. Making it the best October on record and beating the previous recorded high of October 2006.

A proposal by the Environmental Minister Owen Paterson will seek to reduce the amount of £15 added to the average water bill caused by water customers who abscond without paying by encouraging landlords to register details of their tenants on it. Initially it is thought that the register will be a voluntarily one and just for water bills although it could be expanded to all utility sectors.

How about incentivising landlords to act by paying them a small fee for each tenant register? I'm sure a fiver for each tenants details registered would compensate the landlord for the time in providing the information. It would also mean that we all gain by an average of £10 still being knocked off each bill after the fee paid to the landlord. Nudge economics in action! Do we think that Owen has a good idea? My thoughts are that if it is to really happen an incentive is needed for landlords to act.

The trend for 'Let to Buy' is all the twitter in this weekend's press, with complaint that the practice is restricting supply from FTB's as more and more homeowners buy their next property using finance raised against an existing property.

Saturday, November 09, 2013

I've been a regular user of the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) since it's launch and the fact that landlords are now required to hold their tenants deposit in one of the approved landlord deposit scheme providers. Initially there were two insurance backed schemes. Most small landlords have found like me that the free Custodial Scheme offered by the DPS with no set up cost and fees does everything that is required even if they have to hand over their tenants deposits to somebody else.

It appears that the government has concluded that there is no longer room in the market for two insurance backed schemes. The tenancy deposit scheme which was originally known as the Dispute Service and more latterly the TDP is run by Capita Plc but is now being transferred to Mydeposits the other insurance backed scheme. TDP has not been accepting deposits from September the 14th as confirmed on their website.

Competition remains the same
The DPS has now been granted permission to offer an insurance backed policy for landlords and agents wishing to continue to hold their tenants deposit. This means that there are still 2 insurance backed providers in the market.

One good thing is that with less TDS providers we have less confusing acronyms to deal with: DPS, TDS, TDP to name just a few!

Thursday, November 07, 2013

It's show time for landlords! Roll up roll up for all the fun of the fair.

If you are into all things buy-to-let and can get to Coventry why not book you free tickets to Stoneleigh Park on the 27th & 28th November. To have a look at the exhibitors list follow the link.
If you do go along say hello to our friends at Alan Boswell.

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Savills have compiled their latest research. It can be downloaded as a pdf from here. The document attempts to evaluate conflicting data, that shows low transaction levels partnered with higher values. It also goes on to describe the UK housing market as 'diverse and fragmented'. It's worth a read.

The latest auction results from Allsop property auction at the end of October shows that it is still possible to pick up London and SE property at auction that have double digit rental yields. With buying at auction it's all about having access to finance for the initial purchase which limits the amount of competition from other landlords. You will have to find a 10% deposit on the day of the Auction and then completion is normally 28 days which excludes the use of a standard buy-to-let mortgage. For more advice on buying investment property at auction please consult the Landlords Bible.